Orange County Man Stabbed, Beaten by Gangland Graffiti Taggers

An Orange County man is recovering from injuries after being beaten and stabbed early yesterday after he confronted graffiti taggers at McFadden and Orange avenues, in Santa Ana.

KABC-TV Los Angeles has this report, "Man Stabbed, Beaten by Group of Taggers":

Residents say tagging is a common sight in the neighborhood.

"It happens a lot around here in Santa Ana. It's a pretty bad area. It's not really a surprise," said Sergio Ramirez, a resident.

The Los Angeles Times also reports, "Santa Ana Man Attacked After Confronting Taggers."

This is a sad story. I've reported on gangland violence previously. It's just so senseless, and the graffiti-gang problem leaves communities feeling overrun by lawlessness.

Which reminds me of James Joyner. The other day he wrote about Irvine, California, which is just south of Santa Ana: "Irvine’s Little Police State." Joyner links to the radical Kevin Drum, who in turn links to a Los Angeles Times article, "Irvine Marches to a Peaceful Drummer."

With a population of over 200,000, Irvine has been designated the nation's safest city for communities of over 100,000 people. As the article reports, "Last year it experienced its lowest violent crime rate ever, with just 129 reported violent crimes and one homicide."

But for some reason, those kind of numbers get Irvine dissed as a "police state" by Joyner. And Drum, who attended Long Beach State (a city deeply familiar with gangland violence), gets in his own snarky little smear:

You can't be too careful in these parts. In fact, my neighbor's air conditioner has been on the fritz for the past few weeks and its racket has become really annoying. I'm thinking about having him deported with extreme prejudice.

Why the dismissive snark? Because some zealous activists in the neighborhood homeowners' association are sticklers for the rules?

This is why my wife and I live down here, and this is why we send out kids to the area schools:

The city was designed with safety and clean aesthetics in mind, with curving streets that meander through 17 self-contained villages, each with its own grocery stores, shopping centers, grade schools and architectural style.

The result is that, although the town's as big as Modesto or Reno, its villages exude small-town America.

Nothing wrong with that. It's too bad that Santa Ana, with all of its crime and graffiti violence, has lost the spirit. And it's too bad that radical leftists make fun of such enduring American values (actually, they hate enduring American values, so it's not surprising).